This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Initiator assemblies are employed to detonate an input charge to release energy that is subsequently employed to initiate detonation, deflagration or combustion in an output charge. There is a trend in the field of initiator assemblies to employ an exploding foil initiator as the means for initiating detonation of the input charge. Electrical energy input to an exploding foil initiator causes a thin metal bridge to vaporize, which propels a flyer through a barrel and into contact with the input charge. The flyer is typically formed of a relatively thin plastic material and must be accelerated over a relatively short distance (i.e., less than 0.050 inch) to a velocity that is sufficient to initiate the detonation of the input charge. Moreover, the flyer must strike the input charge in a manner that is perpendicular to the axis of the barrel to reduce the risk that contact between the flyer and the input charge will initiate detonation of the input charge.
In situations where the initiator assembly is subjected to a relatively large amount of vibration, there is a risk that portions of the output charge will break apart and migrate within the initiator assembly onto the flyer. This situation is detrimental because it greatly increases the risk that the exploding foil initiator will not be able to detonate the input charge. In this regard, if even a relatively small mass of the material that forms the output charge falls onto the flyer, the additional mass could prevent the flyer from being accelerated to a threshold velocity that is needed to cause the input charge to detonate and/or could cause the flyer to tilt relative to the longitudinal axis of the barrel so that the shock produced by contact between the flyer and the input charge is distributed over time (rather than all at once) so that the input charge is not shocked to a degree that initiates detonation of the input charge.